
REPORT 



OF THE 



SPECIAL COMMITTEE 



ON 



WOMAN SUFFRAGE 



ETC, 



MADE TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AT ITS JANUARY 
SESSION A. D. 1874. 



Printed by Order of the Hodse. 



PROVIDENCE : 

PROVIDENCE PRESS COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE STATE. 

18 7 4. 




Giass--l K\an 

."RAM 
Book — r 






REPORT 



OF THE 



SPECIAL COMMITTEE 



ON 





DC 



ETC. 



/* 



MADE TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AT ITS JANUARY 
SESSION A. D. 1874. 



Printed by Order of the House. 



PROVIDENCE : 

PROVIDENCE PRESS COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE STATE. 

1874. 



REPORT. 



The Special Committee to which was referred the numerous petitions 
and memorials on the subjects of Woman Suffrage, and changes in the 
Statutes to make women eligible to certain offices, report as follows : 

The Declaration of Independance, that Magna Charta of our country, 
framed by our greatest statesmen and jurists, begins as follows : 

" We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created 
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 
rights ; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ; 
that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, de- 
riving their just powers from the consent of the governed." 

These men builded, indeed better than they knew, for their grand 
structure included logically the ultimate extinction of slavery. It now 
remains for us to finish the work, by completing the enfranchisement of 
women, also included therein, for no one will now deny that the words 
" all men " in this declaration of rights, stand for " mankind." 

To accomplish this reform, men and women should have equal educa- 
tion in all schools, collages, universities, medical, legal, and theological 
institutions, and access to all professions ; equal partnership in the 
labors and gains, risks and remunerations of industry ; and equal share 
in the formation and administration of all laws, and liability and obliga- 
tion under them, through legislative assemblies, courts, and executive 
offices. 

The acceptance as a political axiom of the self-evident truth, that law 
should know no sex, the incorporation of it in our Constitution, and the 
living up to it, politically and socially, would effectually accomplish 
this reform. But even after convincing men of this truth, we have to 
overcome the prejudice of custom which decrees, that, as men and 
women never have had equal rights, the claim is barred. This prejudice 
against anything new and unknown, whatever may be its merits, is, 



4 Public Document. 

however losing its force, or we should indeed have reason for faintness 
of heart in the cause of reform. 

Habit may still to some extent be tyrannical over opinion and action, 
but the worship of custom is a declining idolatry. Any suggestion of 
reform, especially if it relates to vital interests of life, still startles those 
not accustomed to habits of thought, but if continually discussed and 
kept before the mind until the impression of strangeness wears off and 
a certain enlightenment follows, it is listened to and judged of, in some 
degree at last by its merits. 

If the prejudice of custom is opposed to the equality of men and 
women, so was it also opposed to freedom of industry, freedom of con- 
science, freedom of the press, and freedom from slavery. Until the} r had 
proved their possibility b} T actual existence, none of these were deemed 
compatible with the safet} T ot the state. Indeed, they are not yet so 
deemed in some benighted countries. That the weak should be subject 
to the strong, was the basis on which the State was organized ; to be 
equals was to be enemies ; association based on equal rights scarcel} T 
existed. 

But the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns, 
and the dawn of better days is upon us, when we ma}' look forward to 
the acceptance of the proposition that men and women shall have equal 
rights. 

It is argued by some, that women are now excluded from such pur- 
suits only as are "unfeminine," and that the "proper sphere," so called, of 
women, is private and domestic life. But, who has the right thus to 
decide for others what is unfeminine? The proper sphere for all human 
beings is the highest they can reach, and complete liberty of choice is 
essential to this right. To interfere before hand and to declare that 
whatever be the genius or capacit} T of a member of a certain race, class, 
or sex, those faculties shall not be allowed unlimited scope, is a gross 
injustice to the individual and an injury, resulting in certain loss, to 
society at large. 

If b}' the assertion that the proper sphere for woman, is the domestic, 
it is meant that this is the only sphere they can fill, the assertion 
shows strange ignorance of life and history. In proportion as eminent 
women have been placed in the highest social and political positions, 
have they shown the ability to fill them. By a strange contradiction) 
though ineligible in most countries to the lowest offices of the state, 
they are in many countries, eligible to the highest of all. It is not 
necessary here to name examples, to prove that women can reign with 
Signal ability. They will occur to every one, but it seems strangely in- 



Report on Woman Suffrage. 5 

consistent that while one country, England, has a Queen at the head of 
the State, another county, the United States, claiming to be politi- 
cally the peer or superior of anj', allows women the chance to fill hardly 
any office higher than that of the humble village postmaster. 

If women then are fit for politics, are politics fit for women? Is 
there any truth in the assertion so often made and repeated, that the 
duties of active political life are incompatible with the duties of a 
mother and the cares of a household ? Even if it is true, this objection 
can apply only to mothers, and a sufficient answer is, that the incompa- 
tibility itself, will prevent their undertaking to carry out both classes of 
duties. No law is needed. 

No one proposes to exclude men from office, because they may be 
merchants, law} T ers, doctors, or otherwise actively occupied, and so it 
would be incompatible for them to undertake to cany out two sets of 
duties. The incompatibility will take care itself in the case of women 
as well as in the case of men, and when real will equally prevent both 
from serving in the two capacities, but there is great injustice in making 
the possibility of incompatibilit} 7 the pretence for the exclusion of those 
in whose case it does not exist. And in the case of single women, and 
the large class of women in excess of men, this so called argument of 
the duties of mothers, does not apply ; it has the bad effect of setting up 
a false view of marriage, because it makes it the sole and chief aim of 
women, instead of leaving them free choice for the development of their 
faculties equally with men. 

• If it is argued that the admission of women to active political life 
will harden them, we ask in vain for the proof. On the contrary the 
eminent women whose names are prominent now, or in the pages of his- 
tory, instead of being hardened by their contact with men, are noted for 
their gentle traits and humanizing influence on their time. 

And we must not lightly disregard the injury done to men by the ex- 
clusive control and exercise of political and legal power. No one can 
exercise such absolute uncontrolled power over others without suffering 
for it ultimately. It must produce among men, a deterioration in what 
are called the manly virtues. Those who so fear that women may be- 
come men do not see the danger of men's becoming what the} 7, insist 
women should be, and the danger of their thus falling into the feeble- 
ness they have so long cultivated in their companions. Men cannot re- 
tain manliness, as opposed to effeminateness, unless women acquire it. 
Not that the intellect of women is feebler on the average than that of 
men, or that the average varied details of women's lives requires less 
ability than the usual routine of average men's lives. 



6 Public Document, 

It is on account of the petty subjects and interests to which the}' are 
generally restricted that the companionship of average women, such as 
their present education and circumstances make them, fails to ennoble 
and elevate as it should the lives and pursuits of men. 

And what shall be said of those moderate reformers who say that 
women should be educated to be companions for men ? It would be 
equally true to say that men should be educated to be companions for 
women. 

The usual statement made Iry this class is, that women should study 
and improve their understanding and taste, stud}* music, etc., and in- 
form themselves sufficiently on the current politics of the da}*, to talk 
of them with their husbands, and be able to understand their wisdom, 
thus assuming that this wisdom is always on one side. But this is not 
improving to the husbands, to say the least. No one can advance be- 
yond the first steps in wisdom, by means of intellectual communion only 
with inferiors. Every man and every woman is ultimately dwarfed and 
narrowed in intellect who does not obtain intellectual intercourse with 
peers and superiors. The intercourse of a strong minded man with a 
weak minded woman is not conducive to the intellectual welfare of 
either. And the education of women will never be what it should be, 
until it becomes the same education as that of men, and not merely 
superficial information on solid subjects. The highest mental powers in 
women need not be looked for until every career is open to them, and 
they, as well as men, are educated for themselves and for the world — not 
one sex for the other. 

Another objection often urged against the enfranchisement of women 
is, that women themselves do not desire any change. It is said that they 
generally disclaim any such wish and that they visit with a certain amount 
of social obloquy, the women who actively try to bring about the reform. 

If this proves anything, it proves too much. If it proves that Ameri- 
can women ought to remain as they are, it also proves that Asiatic and 
Mormon women ought to remain as they are. It proves thai slaves 
should be left in slavery, and that savage tribes should be left in barbar- 
ism, for they all desire no change. And, even if true, it should not be 
allowed to debar from active life, by law and custom, any woman, who, 
with more intellect than her less favored sisters, may feel prompted to 
carry out to the fullest result, the unrestricted development of her own 

faculties. Were it not for the strange fears entertained of the results o^ 
the adoption of the proposition, probably no one would deny that the 

law, like the gospel, should know no sex. Believing that these fears are 

groundless, and no reason can be shown for their existence, what legis- 
lation is necessary to make men and women equal in politics and law? 



Report on Wo7nan Suffrage. 7 

It is clear that to allow only those women to vote who possess a cer- 
tain amount of property would not be just, unless the same restriction is 
applied to men. Whatever qualifications are attached to the exercise of 
the privilege of voting should apply to men as well as to women. But 
however important it ma}^ be that restrictions shall apply, no new one 
can be set up without the consent of those who would be cut off bj T the 
restriction. 

Congress, however, has before it a proposition to deprive women in 
the territory of Wyoming of the right to vote, which thev- now have, 
without their consent to such deprivation. As an apt instance of the in- 
justice habitually done to women, let any man reflect whether Congress 
would be expected to entertain a similar proposition to deprive men in 
the same territory of the right to vote without their consent to such de- 
privation. Until the beginning of this centuiy women voted in the 
State of New Jersey. Then the right was taken away from them. But 
it does not appear that this was done with their consent. Now that the 
experience of the last twenty-five 3-ears has shown the mischief done by 
the Democratic party, b} T the indiscriminate enlargement of the right to 
vote, in New York and other States, this might serve as a precedent for 
now limiting the franchise in those States, without the consent of those 
who would be cut off by the restriction ! 

In this connection attention may be called to the strange fact that the 
Democratic part}', which has alwa} T s claimed to be the democratic party 
of the country, and which has done so much to lower the tone of the 
judiciary by making the appointment of judges dependent on the popu- 
lar vote, besides the indiscriminate widening of the right to vote, already 
spoken of, has, notwithstanding, always favored slaveiy, and has ceased 
to exist rather than consent to its abolition. Those whom the gods wish 
to destroy they first make mad. It is not surprising, therefore, to find 
Democrats opposed to making men and women equal. Blinded, and led 
on by the fatuity that has governed them for the past fifteen years, they 
still court political destruction. This is to be regretted, because the re- 
sult is that we have now only one party in the country, or, more properly 
speaking, we have none at all. Our politics now amount to nothing 
more than a contest between the ins and the outs. A live opposition, 
governed by real principle, would be a blessing to the countiy, and 
would soon bring about a change in the present disgraceful condition 
of our national politics. Let us hope that the Republican party, so called, 
will not court similar de th b} T ignoring the issues of the day, one of the 
greatest of which we are now considering. 



8 Public Document. 

It is also equally clear that to give women the right to vote without 
subjecting them to the same duties and liabilities that the men who vote 
are subject to, would also be unjust. If women are to share with men 
the right, or, more properly speaking, the privilege, of voting, the}' must 
also share with men the duties and liabilities incident to such privilege. 
This leads us to ask if there areany political and legal duties and liabili- 
ties that women cannot share with men, and a careful examination will 
show that there are none. One of the most onerous of these liabilities, 
subjection to taxation, women now share with men. They should share 
it no longer, if they are not to be allowed to vote unless the language 
quoted of the Declaration of Independence is mere sound and fury 
signifying nothing. 

One other, and the most serious liability women should share with men, 
if they are to share with them all rights and privileges, is the liability to 
service in case of war. There is no reason against such equal liability 
of men and women, for half, perhaps, of the positions in the army and 
navy, might as well, or even better, be filled by women. They might 
occupy positions in all Hospitals, Commissary's, Quartermaster's and 
Paymaster's departments. And this would be no discrimination in 
their favor, for it is not considered any discrimination in favor of 
the men who now fill those departments. That our army, as now 
organized, is deficiently organized, is attested by the fact that 
thousands of women, during our late war, voluntarily and persist- 
ently, often in spite of the opposition of the authorities, entered into 
the service of the nation, many of them at the sacrifice of their health 
and lives ; and we all know what noble service they did, and in what 
esteem they were held by our soldiers and the country at large ! 
Can any one doubt that their services would have been ten-fold as great 
had they been part of the organized service ? 

And the records of the war show, moreover, that many women actually 
carried muskets and served in the ranks, and their sex remained undis. 
covered unless they were wounded and sent to the hospital, or killed. 
There are, probably, man} 7 women now alive, who thus served in the 
field through the war. 

In case of a draft, women, then, as well as men, should be liable to 
serve or provide a substitute. It is useless to object that this would be 
a greater burden than most women could bear. How man} 7 drafted men 
in this State, during the late war, served, themselves, or paid for substi- 
tutes? It is well known that the towns paid, generally, for these substi- 
tutes, and for the support of their families, while they were in the service. 
And, to accomplish this, the towns taxed the property of women as well 
as of men. 



Report on Woman Suffrage. 9 

Let not the mere novelty of such a state of things deter men of reason 
from seeing that there is nothing impracticable in it, but that it is more 
consonant than the present state, with strict justice and political right. 

Women, then, as well as men, would be liable to serve in such places 
as they are, by their physical and mental organizations fitted to fill, sub- 
ject equally with men, to equitable laws of exemption for sufficient 
cause to be fixed by statute, and, having equal privileges with men, to 
provide substitutes, or pay whatever the law of supply and demand may 
compel them to pay. 

An incidental good effect of such measures would be the consequent 
diminishment of the chances of war. It would be one of the best peace 
measures ever proposed, for every people would hesitate and be less lia- 
ble to be led into war by sudden excitement, if men and women were 
subject to equal liability to service. 

There is peculiar propriety in consummating this great reform in this 
State, which led the great reform of perfect liberty of opinion in religious 
matters, a reform in that day considered as impracticable and chimeri- 
cal as this is in ours. And, as in that case, the time will come when 
men will wonder at the strange apprehensions and fears entertained. 
For come the reform must. We see the signs of it on all sides, and it is 
only a question of time. The more the question is agitated, the more 
apparent is the necessity for the reform and the more converts are made. 
Women now vote in the territory of Wyoming, and the testimony of one 
of the judges of their courts, who, before the change was utterly opposed 
to it, is, that nothing but good has come of it, and that he feels com- 
pelled, by the facts and actual working of the measure, to approve it un- 
reservedly. He is a competent and unbiased witness, and reports, not 
theoretical views, but his own experience in court. And the State 
Senate of Kansas has even now submitted the question of Woman Suf- 
frage to the vote of the people. 

The opposition may be said to be composed mainly of the weak in in- 
tellect, the ignorant who have never thought of it, and the inert mass of 
conservatives, and the so-called reasons against it, to be mainly the re- 
sults of ignorance, sentiment and prejudice, even admitting that some 
people are conscientious^ opposed to it. There are even some oppon- 
ents of the measure who, while acknowleclo-mo; the abstract justice of the 
proposed reform, fear that the result would be an increase of immorality 
— as if justice ever could breed immorality ! And those, who, opposed 
to the reform, speak so slightingly of the capacity of woman, if they 
speak from experience, as they must, to entitle their opinion to any 
weight, should not forget the evidence it furnishes of the estimation in 
which they hold their wives, mothers, and sisters. 



10 Public Document. 

Among the many signs of the impending change, we may note the 
steady amelioration of the laws with respect to the rights of women. 
The law has been reformed, to a certain extent, at least, to better pro- 
tect women in their rights of property. Now we see laws proposed, pub- 
lic sentiment for the first time generally approving, to make women 
eligible as members of school committees where they are not so already, 
and overseers of the poor, and prisons, etc. 

Certainly these are all most desirable reforms, but why thus peddle 
out reform in driblets? Why not go to the root of the matter at once, 
for get there we certainly shall in the end ? 

There is another reason for beginning the reform in this State. For- 
tunately, we have a property qualification, and this would exclude wo- 
men, as it now does men, from voting on any proposition to impose a 
tax, or for the expenditure of mone} T , unless the}^ shall be properly 
qualified by the possession of property. The usual conservative influ- 
ence of women would thus come more into play, which may relieve the 
fears of those who imagine hitherto undreamt of horrors, if women, as 
well as men, are to have their rights. 

Although it may be well to have a property qualification in the ab- 
sence of hope of any better, let it not be thought that it is because 
property and the possession of it are peculiarly sacred. A better rea- 
son is, that, on the whole, the possession of property is some evidence 
that the possessor is able to take care of property, and, therefore, is 
fitted to attend to the interests of the State. In the long run, property 
remains only with those who can take care of it, and those are the ones 
to take care of the State. Another good reason why the possession 
of property should qualify one to vote, is, that, having personal in- 
terests at stake, such a one will be more apt to weigh new measures 
with due deliberation before overturning any established order of things. 

Let us remember how much women have at stake in the cause of sup- 
pression of intemperance, and how much more effective their power of 
assistance would be if they had equal rights with men. 

And so every consideration impels us to the decision from which we 
see no escape. 

We rebelled from the mother country to establish the truth of the pro- 
position that taxation without representation is tyranny. Yet women 
are not allowed to represent their property. They should have the right 
that they may protect it. Women are the natural guardians and edu- 
cators of children, and therefore should be members of school committees. 
Women best know the necessities of women, and therefore should 
be eligible as overseers of the poor, asylums and hospitals. Women 



Report on Woman Suffrage. 11 

have as much at stake as men in all questions of social re- 
form, and therefore should have equal facilities for assisting in framing 
and seeing to the execution of laws on such subjects. Women have equal 
right with men to tne highest attainable wages, subject only to the law 
of supply and demand. This right they have not, so long as they are 
debarred by social prejudice, custom, and law, from competing equally 
with men for all positions they may choose to try to fill. The common 
law of England gave foreigners the right to claim that half the jury 
should be foreigners, yet women are compelled to submit to trial by men 
only, no matter what motives of delicacy may prompt them to prefer a 
trial by women. It is a fundamental rule of equity, that all persons 
shall be tried by their peers. Yet women are tried by a male jury and 
male judges. To sum up ; women are subject to law, and therefore 
should have the power to assist in framing laws and in their execution. 

If, as is so often asserted, women are inferior to men, then the law 
should discriminate in their favor instead of against them. But being 
their equals, women should be subject to all the duties and liabilities of 
men, and should be free to enjoy all their rights and privileges. 

We therefore recommend the passage of the following resolution ; 
first calling the particular attention of the members of this House to 
the fact that in voting for its passage, they will let the voters of the 
State decide the matter themselves, since it is to be referred to them. 
In voting against its passage, they prevent the voters from deciding the 
matter, thus assuming to decide it without allowing the people a voice 
in the decision, since this question was not before them when this Gen- 
eral Assembly was elected. 

All of which is respectfully submitted, 

AMASA M. EATON. 
GEORGE W. HALL. 
Providence, March 3, 1874. 



Resolved, A majority of all the members elected to each house of the Gen- 
eral Assembly ccnourring herein, that the following article be propose as an 
amendment to the Cofistitution of the State, and that the Secretary of State 
caused the same to be published, and printed copies thereof, to be distributed 
in the manner provided in Article XII of the Constitution. 

ARTICLE. 

Men and Women, politically and legally, shall be entitled to equal rights 
and privileges, and shall be subject to equal duties and liabilities. 



4%t % 



LB JL '05 



